One-Shots

Lily’s Night Off: The Visual Novel, Condensed, Polished to a Fine Sheen

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It’s always a genuine pleasure to see a developer refine and improve their craft — particularly when it’s obvious how much time, effort and passion they put into their work.

Anyone who follows Lily series developer Kyuppin on Twitter — or indeed, anyone who read my previous coverage of Lily’s Day Off — will know he is a great example of a creator who is absolutely brimming with enthusiasm for his craft. The road to release for Lily’s Night Off was paved with earnest solicitations for feedback, assurances that fans interested in the strictly limited physical merchandise would get their hands on some quality products… and what came across an honest to goodness love for the art of writing, game development and design.

So… how did Lily’s Night Off end up, then? Was all that passion and enthusiasm worth it?

Continue reading Lily’s Night Off: The Visual Novel, Condensed, Polished to a Fine Sheen →

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Mai Shiranui

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Sometimes it can be a challenge to find detailed information and fanart for Waifu Wednesday articles. I have not had that problem today.

Yes, after discovering the fun that is SNK Heroines, I thought I’d devote today to probably SNK’s most widely recognised heroine, Mai Shiranui.

It turned out that despite her being a very familiar figure to me in terms of visual design, I didn’t know a whole lot about her. So let’s take a little journey together!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Mai Shiranui →

One-Shots, SNK

SNK Heroines: Fighting is Fun

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I’ve tried numerous times to “get into” fighting games over the years with varying amounts of success.

Back in the SNES era, I had a good time with the original Street Fighter II and managed to beat it with most of the characters — but my skills have gotten severely rusty since then. Beyond that, my main contact with the genre has primarily been the Dead or Alive series, which I enjoyed for a combination of its cast of beautiful people and its enjoyably fluid, reasonably accessible action.

But I’d always find myself hitting a wall. I’d never be able to pull off impressive combos, I’d struggle to reliably trigger special moves and I’d have difficulty understanding the underlying strategy that is fundamental to the fighting game experience as a whole. Oh, what to do, what to do?

Continue reading SNK Heroines: Fighting is Fun →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Dandy

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For the retro gaming and retro computer enthusiasts among you, here’s the continuation of my ongoing project to explore the library of the Atari 8-Bit.

Released through the Atari Program Exchange (or APX), an initiative by Atari that allowed amateur and professional programmers alike the opportunity to get their projects distributed commercially, Dandy by John Howard Palevich turned out to be a rather influential game.

Originally intended as a multiplayer networked adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons before being simplified and refined into the four-player action dungeon crawler it ultimately became, Dandy would be a defining influence on Atari’s later arcade hit Gauntlet… and it’s not hard to see why.

Delving Into..., Dragon Quest, Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Delving into Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – #6

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Okay, I got it wrong. I have not yet finished Hand of the Heavenly Bride, nor was I near to doing so.

Well, actually, that might not quite be true. But I have been getting a little distracted on my way to what I can only assume is the final boss: first with grinding to get Bianca up to a similar level as my protagonist and their children, and subsequently with the subject of today’s article.

Many RPGs today concentrate primarily on their core mechanics, with their optional content involving those same mechanics: challenging combat, deep dungeons or hard-to-find items. But the Dragon Quest series, like Final Fantasy, is one that has always incorporated minigames into the mix, with their own completely separate ways of playing. And it’s that I’d like to talk about today.

Continue reading Delving into Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – #6 →

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Scud Racer – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #3

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It’s time for another episode of Sunday Driving and the continuation of Amy’s world tour in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

I noticed the quality on the previous videos was lower than it has been from my previous PC game captures, likely due to the fact that some combination of Windows 10 and/or my switch to SSD has meant that I’ve been having to re-encode captured video to a constant frame rate otherwise I get audio sync issues. This time around I’ve used higher quality settings, so let me know if you notice the difference.

Hit the jump to see the video! Continue reading Sunday Driving: Scud Racer – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #3 →

Cover Games, Evenicle

Evenicle: Introduction and First Impressions

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cropped-evenicle-header-2828638This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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Alicesoft was a developer that wasn’t really on my radar before I played the English releases of Rance 5D and Rance VI, and chances are if you haven’t explored eroge in any great detail you may not be overly familiar with them either.

However, between the Rance games and my experiences with Evenicle so far, I’m very comfortable with saying that they are an excellent developer that any fans of high-quality enjoyable RPGs with interesting mechanics, solid narratives and extremely memorable characters would do well to check out. Particularly if you’re keen for your games to actually treat you like an adult — and I’m not just talking about sexual content here.

So what is Evenicle? Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Evenicle: Introduction and First Impressions →

Cover Games, Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog: Dare to be Different

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cropped-sonicheader-9220777This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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With how positively Sonic Adventure had been received on its original release — and many subsequent Sonic releases being compared unfavourably to it — it’s surprising that Sonic Team didn’t return to the concept sooner.

Return they did, however, with an ambitious multiplatform title that was originally intended to be the third official Sonic Adventure game. Initially developed under the working title of Sonic World Adventure — a title it would keep in Japan — Sonic Unleashed was intended to shake up the series in a few fundamental ways.

These days, in retrospect, Sonic Unleashed is seen as one of the earliest examples of what some people describe as “Boost Sonic“, but it’s an interesting game in its own right. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Sonic the Hedgehog: Dare to be Different →

Hundred Honeys, Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: The Hundred Honeys Project – A New Venue

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That bedroom was getting a bit cramped with all the Honeys present, so I’ve moved the photoshoots to a new location. Which is already pretty full.

For those unaware, the Hundred Honeys Project is my attempt to see just how far I can push the engine of Illusion and Fakku’s excellent sex sim-cum-digital dollhouse Honey Select Unlimited — and specifically its Honey Unlimited Studio feature, which allows you to load in characters and pose them as you see fit for, you know, digital art.

Today, as a bit of a change, I thought I’d investigate the Illusion Game Cards Booru and download some creations from the wider community — specifically those that don’t make use of any external mods, just the included assets. Making use of someone else’s character couldn’t be simpler — just download the .png file from the booru, drop it in Honey Select Unlimited’s UserData\chara folder and… that’s it! The .png files contain all the info the game needs to decipher the custom character.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: The Hundred Honeys Project – A New Venue →

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: The Sword That Hits Eight Times – Warriors Orochi #5

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It’s time for another romp in Orochi’s less-than-fair lands as Nobunaga and his samurai friends hack and slash their way to another victory.

I, uh, made a small mistake with recording this one in that I accidentally deleted my whole commentary while I was cleaning up my videos folder, so I ended up having to record a new commentary “after the fact”, as it were. I don’t think it came out too badly.

Hit the jump for the new video.

Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: The Sword That Hits Eight Times – Warriors Orochi #5 →

The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.